Management of voice conversations with switching among different communication techniques

1. A method for managing voice conversations, the method comprising: establishing, with a first telephone terminal, a voice conversation between a first user of the first telephone terminal and a second user of a second telephone terminal using a current communication technique selected from a plurality of communication techniques supported by the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal; monitoring, with the first telephone terminal, one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique and one or more quality indicators of at least one alternative communication technique of the plurality of communication techniques; switching, with the first telephone terminal during a duration of the voice conversation, the current communication technique to the at least one alternative communication technique of the plurality of communication techniques different from the current communication technique in response to a switching condition based on the one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique and the one or more quality indicators of the at least one alternative communication technique, wherein at least one of the one or more quality indicators corresponds to a distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal, a distance trend corresponding to a change in distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal over time, and a transmission range of both the current communication technique and of the at least one alternative communication technique present on both the first and second telephone terminals; and verifying the switching condition according to a risk of interruption of the voice conversation based on a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a signal strength of the current communication technique and a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a rate of change of distance between the first and second telephone terminals, and on a possibility of establishing the voice conversation using the at least one alternative communication technique.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein switching comprises: starting a new communication with the second telephone terminal using the at least one alternative communication technique of the plurality of communication techniques; and dropping the current communication after a predefined delay from the start of the new communication.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communication techniques include a mobile telephone communication technique based on a connection with a mobile telephone network and a push to talk communication technique based on a direct radio connection.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein switching further comprises: establishing a new radio communication from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal using the push-to-talk communication technique to switch the voice conversation thereto from a current telephone call between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein switching further comprises: establishing a new telephone call from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal using the mobile telephone communication technique, thereby causing the second telephone terminal to respond to the new telephone call automatically to switch the voice conversation thereto from a current radio communication between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal using the push to talk communication technique.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein, when the current communication technique is the mobile telephone communication technique, said monitoring comprises: monitoring a first signal strength of the connection of the first telephone terminal with the mobile telephone network, and monitoring a second signal strength of the connection of the second telephone terminal with the mobile telephone network; and the switching comprises: detecting a first position of the first telephone terminal, detecting a second position of the second telephone terminal; calculating a distance between the first position and the second position.

7. The method according to claim 3 , wherein when the current communication technique is the push to talk communication technique said monitoring comprises: monitoring a first position of the first telephone terminal, monitoring a second position of the second telephone terminal, and monitoring a distance corresponding to the distance between the first position and the second position; and the switching further comprises: detecting a first signal strength of the connection of the first telephone terminal with the mobile telephone network, and detecting a second signal strength of the connection of the second telephone terminal with the mobile telephone network; and determining whether a distance trend corresponding to a calculated distance between the first position and the second position is within a transmission range of the at least one alternative communication technique present on both the first and second telephone terminals.

8. The method according to claim 3 , comprising: submitting, with the first phone terminal, an availability request of the second telephone terminal from the first telephone terminal to a server computing system in response to the establishing of the voice conversation, and enabling said monitoring and said switching in response to a positive response to the availability request received from the server computing system.

9. The method according to claim 6 , comprising: downloading status information comprising an indication of the second signal strength and of the second position from a server computing system, wherein the status information has been uploaded from the second telephone terminal.

10. The method according to claim 3 , wherein, when the current communication technique is the mobile telephone communication technique, said monitoring comprises: monitoring a first signal strength of the connection of the first telephone terminal with the mobile telephone network; and the switching further comprises: attempting to establish a new radio communication from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal, and switching the voice conversation from the mobile telephone communication technique to the push to talk communication technique in response to an acknowledgment sent by the second telephone terminal indicating that the new radio communication is available.

11. The method according to claim 3 , wherein when the current communication technique is the push to talk communication technique said monitoring comprises: monitoring a radio strength of an incoming radio communication received by the first telephone terminal from the second telephone terminal, and the switching further comprises: attempting, using the first telephone terminal, a new telephone call from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal, and switching the voice conversation from the push to talk communication technique to the mobile telephone communication technique in response to an indication of acceptance of the new telephone call by the second telephone terminal.

12. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising: transmitting, in response to the establishing of the voice conversation using the mobile telephone communication technique, an indication of a push to talk identifier of the first telephone terminal from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal using the mobile telephone communication technique to cause the second telephone terminal to store the push to talk identifier.

13. The method according to claim 4 comprising: transmitting, in response to the establishing of the voice conversation using the push to talk communication technique, an indication of a telephone number of the first telephone terminal from the first telephone terminal to the second telephone terminal using the push to talk communication technique to cause the second telephone terminal to store the telephone number.

14. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: monitoring one or more quality indicators of a previously used communication technique, and switching the voice conversation from a selected communication technique to the previously used communication technique in response to a restore condition based on the one or more quality indicators of the previously used communication technique.

15. A system for managing voice conversations, the system comprising: a computing device configured to: establish a voice conversation between a first user of a first telephone terminal and a second user of a second telephone terminal by using a current communication technique of a plurality of communication techniques supported by the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal, monitor one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique; switch the voice conversation from the current communication technique to a selected one alternative of the plurality of communication techniques different from the current communication technique in response to a switching condition based on the device detecting one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique and on one or more quality indicators of each alternative of the plurality of communication techniques, wherein at least one of the one or more quality indicators corresponds to a distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal, a distance trend corresponding to a change in distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal over time, and a transmission range of both the current communication technique and of the selected one alternative communication technique present on both the first and second telephone terminals; and verify the switching condition according to a risk of interruption of the voice conversation based on a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a signal strength of the current communication technique and a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a rate of change of distance between the first and second telephone terminals, and on a possibility of establishing the voice conversation using the selected one alternative communication technique.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the computing device is further configured to: verify the switching condition according to a risk of interruption of the voice conversation based on a trend of the one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique and on a possibility of establishing the voice conversation using the selected one alternative of the plurality of communication techniques.

17. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the computing device is further configured to: start a new communication with the selected one alternative of the plurality of communication techniques for implementing the voice conversation, and drop a current communication with the current communication technique implementing the voice conversation after a predefined delay from the starting of the new communication.

18. A telephone terminal comprising: circuitry for establishing a voice conversation between a user of the telephone terminal and a user of a second telephone terminal using one of a plurality of communication techniques supported by the telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal; circuitry for monitoring one or more quality indicators of a current communication technique of the plurality of communication techniques; circuitry for switching the voice conversation from the current communication technique to a selected alternative of the plurality of communication techniques in response to a switching condition based on the one or more quality indicators of the current communication technique and on one or more quality indicators for each one of the plurality of communication techniques, wherein at least one of the one or more quality indicators corresponds to a distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal, a distance trend corresponding to a change in distance between the first telephone terminal and the second telephone terminal over time, and a transmission range of both the current communication technique and of the selected alternative communication technique of the plurality of communication techniques present on both the first and second telephone terminals; and circuitry for verifying the switching condition according to a risk of interruption of the voice conversation based on a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a signal strength of the current communication technique and a trend of the one or more quality indicators relating to a rate of change of distance between the first and second telephone terminals, and on a possibility of establishing the voice conversation using the selected alternative communication technique.

19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said switching comprises: verifying the switching condition according to a risk of interruption of the voice conversation based on a trend of the one or more quality indicators of the plurality of communication techniques and on a possibility of establishing the voice conversation using each of the plurality of communication techniques according to the one or more quality indicators associated with each of the plurality of communication techniques.